As a young man, Stanislaw Poniatowski arrived at the court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia, a Polish noble in the service of an English diplomat. An affair commenced with the future Catherine the Great, whose affection (and malign influence in the politics of Russia’s neighbor) resulted in Stanislaw being elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in in 1764.
It was a good news/bad news reign for Stanislaw, who saw his country partitioned not once, not twice, but three times, by the greater powers on his borders. His efforts to modernize and liberalize Poland – including the creation of an American-style constitution in 1791 – were all for naught, as his former lover finally annexed what remained of Poland in 1795. It would be more than a century before Poland re-emerged as a nation, and one which views Stanislaw II August in an understandably mixed way.
Thanks to listener Ray for contributing this banger of a tale.
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